Book Description

The utilization of data in combatting employment discrimination against women and minorities is reviewed in this paper. Suggestions are made for changes which would allow better use of data in formulating national policy and in enforcing the laws and executive orders against discrimination. For purposes of overall policy formation, emphasis is put on providing better information for Hispanics, and in reforming labor turnover data so that they are more revealing of the extent to which discrimination continues. Changes are suggested in the way employment and unemployment data are collected and published, in order to remove biases which minimize the problems of discriminated-against groups. With respect to data collected by the agencies charged with enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and executive orders, it is suggested that there be a shift of emphasis from the collection of data on stocks (numbers of employed) to data on flows (numbers of hires, promotions, separations) by occupation, and that such data be published by name of firm for large firms. It is also suggested that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) develop a methodology for issuing estimates of availability by race x sex x occupation, and pair up such estimates with the data by firm name suggested above. (Author/GC).